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Intentional injustice

Wilton Dedge spent 22 years in prison because a rape victim identified the wrong man and prosecutors, in their zeal to convict him, relied on junk science and a loathsome jailhouse snitch. Still, it was essentially an accident. No such excuse applies to the disgustingly cheap compensation scheme that the House Claims Committee approved Wednesday. This injustice is intentional.

Though everyone knows that DNA proved Dedge innocent, the committee would force him - or any other prisoner similarly wronged - to choose between settling for no more than $200,000 in cash or a basket of benefits including health care, free education and state employment preference. The money would not reimburse even what his parents spent, emptying their retirement funds and remortgaging their home, to defend him.

That aside, would any legislator volunteer to serve at slave labor in the brutal environment of a prison - or to work anywhere - for barely $9,000 a year?

House Claims Committee Chairman John Quinones, R-Kissimmee, rationalized that "there's no way you can put a price tag on liberty." But he effectively set the price at zero. His bill is a disgrace to the state and to any legislator who considers it adequate.

Senate President Tom Lee promptly and properly made it clear that his chamber will do better and that $200,000 is "probably not" enough. After what Florida has already done to Dedge, however, it compounds injustice with cruelty for him now to become the pawn in yet another of Tallahassee's low-ball, high-ball games. House Speaker Allan Bense, who is better than this, should send the bill back to the committee with instructions to do it right.

[Last modified March 31, 2005, 01:27:20]